Page 54 of Happy Is On Hiatus
Rita stepped toward Taryn, but Taryn turned fast, and now the gun was pointed at Rita.
“Taryn!” Rita yelled.
“For real, Mama? Are you having sex with him? How could you? That’s so cliché!”
For one, Rita felt some kind of way about her daughter pointing a gun at her. And two, she definitely didn’t like the tone or the questions coming from Taryn either.
“Girl, if you don’t put that gun down,” Rita warned, but it was too late.
Vance had come up behind Taryn and reached around her to grab her wrists and turn her arms away from Rita’s direction. Taryn tried to buck back against him, but she lost her grip on the gun, and it fell to the floor. Rita ran over to kick the gun away.
“What in the world is wrong with you? Why do you even have a gun?”
“Why are you hiding a half-dressed so-called personal trainer in your bathroom?” Taryn yelled.
Then, as if this situation couldn’t get any more bizarre, Necole also decided to show up early for dinner. “A fine half-dressed personal trainer,” Rita’s youngest daughter said while wiggling her brows in Vance’s direction.
It only took ten minutes for Rita to order her daughters upstairs and then wait for Vance to come out of the bathroom, fully dressed this time.
“I’m so sorry,” she said the moment he shut the bathroom door behind him. “I don’t know what got into her.”
He was shaking his head. “She was just protecting you.”
“With a gun? In my house? No, she’s way out of line, and I’ll deal with her later. But I wanted to apologize to you.”
“It’s not necessary. Remember, I told you I know firsthand how tough it is going through a divorce. My sons took it hard when I started dating again too. It’s normal.”
“She’s grown, but not as grown as I am,” Rita said as they walked toward the steps. “She doesn’t have a say in my dating life. Besides the fact that I’m not even dating.”
He grinned. “But you will, at some point. Instead of apologizing to me, make sure you reiterate those boundaries with your daughters. That’s something I took too long to do.”
Rita took the advice and didn’t even glance in the kitchen as they came upstairs and turned straight into the foyer. “I guess she could’ve really thought you were an intruder.”
He nodded. “I can see that. But if she’s gonna pull a gun, she might want to actually learn how to use one. She never took the safety off; that’s why I moved in on her.”
Rita opened the door and sighed heavily. “But that could’ve ended a lot worse,” she said.
“Right.” He walked out the door. “Anyway, let me know when you’re ready for your next session.”
Leaning against the doorjamb, Rita smiled and shook her head. “You sure? I know it’s not every day that you have a gun pulled on you by a client’s daughter.”
“No. It’s not. But I’m not upset by it. If you want another massage, all you have to do is call me.”
“I will,” Rita said as she watched him walk away. “I most definitely will.”
Chapter 21
THE SPICY SAUCE.
Rita walked into her kitchen to see Taryn and Necole unpacking the food they’d brought in. Neither of them looked up to see her enter, but the air was thick with tension and filled with the scent of red sauce and oregano.
“For the record, Vance is a personal trainer.” She decided to start with that because the presumption that she would lie about it was only one of the things that had her filled with annoyance right now.
“I’ve seen him at the church,” Necole said as she set containers of food on the island.
Taryn moved, carrying the bag she’d finished unpacking with bowls of what Rita knew were extra sauces, Parmesan cheese, and side salads, and put it in the recycle bin near the slider doors across the room. Rita went to the cabinet for the plates.
“Yes, he goes to NVB, so I’ve known him for a few years.” Or at least she knew of him. Until today there hadn’t been much more connection between her and Vance than there was a good number of the large congregation.
